Staff Correspondent

Concerned stakeholders said the existing Digital Security Act (DSA) needs to be amended so that people could exercise their freedom of expression on the online platform without intimidation to exercise the fundamental rights.

Underscoring the need for laws for digital security, they said the amendment to Section 43 is important so that police must need a properly issued warrant from the court before conducting searches, arrests and seizures as this Section has given boundless power to law enforcers.

The observation came in a seminar on the Digital Security Act titled ‘Lesson Learnt Seminar on Fostering Responsible Digital Citizenship’ organised by Development Research Network (Dnet) in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom held in a city hotel on Tuesday.

Highlighting the scope of misusing DSA, they said misuse of DSA can harass individuals and curtail their freedom of expression which is fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

The Sections 25, 29 and 31 of the DSA, which act as key barriers to the freedom of expression, should be reviewed to ensure the compliance with international human rights law, they recommended.

They have further recommended that the offences committed under the DSA should be made bailable and non-cognizable.

Training and strict monitoring of law enforcement agencies on the use of DSA are needed to prevent its misuse and introducing training on cyber law for lawyers, prosecutors and judges to enable genuine victims to seek and obtain justice, the observation said.

They have also recommended for conducting mass awareness campaigns with young people on the provisions of DSA to remove their state of unawareness.

The young people should also use the digital platform responsibly. Rumki Farhana, Senior Programme Officer of ARTICLE 19 said, “Evidentially the DSA is being abused as a weapon of legal harassment to the journalists and communicators rather than playing the role of protection.”